LCUSD News

LCUSD has reviewed and updated its attendance policies largely because attendance is an increasingly important measure in school and district accountability with the State of California and because we value students’ daily presence in the learning environment to ensure their success.

However, as with all of our policies we want to be able to apply them consistently, fairly, and for them to be student, staff, and family-centric. To that end, we have made some minor modifications to the attendance policy that was published at the very beginning of the school year. These adjustments are explained below.

The following 3 examples of Unexcused Absences have been removed from the list: Club Sports Events, Family Responsibilities, and Sibling Responsibilities.

With regard to those types of absences, it is within a school administrator's role per Ed Code to make decisions on the application of education code to absences. In the cases above, Ms. Hazlett (9-12) or Dr. Gold (7/8) will determine based on the written evidence or documentation presented to them whether the absence is unexcused or excused as a "W." A "W" falls under Administrator approval for Personal Reasons and is under the discretion of the school administrator and the facts of the pupil's circumstance.

In the case of an elite athlete or a compelling family or sibling responsibility, Ms. Hazlett or Dr. Gold will assess the documentation and exercise her/his discretion to excuse the absence. I have asked both administrators to keep a running list of "Ws" so that we can monitor for consistency.

For any excused absence, a teacher is required to provide make-up work. For any unexcused absence, it is at the teacher's discretion to provide or not provide make-up work and they will receive complete support from administration in their decision.

The policy line that has been changed is from the original document is: "It is recommended that teachers not allow make-up work for unexcused absences."

This has been replaced with the line: "Students who are absent without written, verified and justifiable personal reasons or students who have returned to school without a note need not be given the opportunity to complete coursework, homework or tests missed. In the interest of supporting students academically, teachers should give them such opportunities for any excused absence. Codes which represent excused absences are: C, D, F, H, I, L, N, V, W, X and Z."